Seeking Collaborators for Humanitarian Drinking Water Project

Dr. Minas Tanielian is a Boeing Technical Fellow and was recently appointed as a UW Affiliate Professor in Electrical Engineering. His research interests have centered mainly around Microsystems and electronics, but he is also passionate about finding technical solutions to provide safe drinking water to small, poor, and disadvantaged communities around the world. He is currently seeking collaborators in a new humanitarian, drinking water-related project. Here, he describes his project:

Among the many challenges such communities face, water is often a major source of pathogens and toxins. I have designed a small stand-alone, modular water desalination/purification system that can be powered by sunlight and wind energy, with no consumable parts. This makes it possible for usage in remote locations, isolated communities and off-grid applications.

My immediate goal is to model, prototype, and debug my system as a proof-of-principle. Once a practical solution has been developed, we hope to deploy a plethora of such systems around the world with financial help from a philanthropic organization and utilizing volunteer labor for the installations.

Clearly, this is going to be a long journey. Along the way I will need a lot of help from all sorts of people. As a first step in that journey, I would like to meet and talk with like-minded individuals who want to help make this humanitarian goal a reality.

If you would like to learn more about Dr. Tanielian’s research or if you are interested in collaborating, please contact minas.h.tanielian@boeing.com.